Ignition for multiple-cylinder combustion-engines having irregular order of ignition.



G.HONOLD. IGNITION FOR MULTIPLE OYLINDER COMBUSTION ENGINES HAVINGIRREGULAR ORDER OF IGNITION.

APPLIGATION FILED SEPT. 27. 1910.

Patented J an. 5, 1915.

SSHBETS-SHEET 1.

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I G. HONOLD. IGNITION'PQB. MULTIPLE CYLINDER COMBUSTION ENGINES HAVINGIRREGULAR ORDER OF IGNITION.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT.27| 1910.

Patented Jan. 5, 1915.

5 SHEETSSHBET 2.

GJIONOLD. IGNITION FOR MULTIPLE CYLINDER COMBUSTION ENGINES HAVINGIRREGULAR ORDER 0F IGNITION.

a APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 27. 1910. gz gggg v Patented Jan. 5, 11915.

5 SHEETSSHEET 8.

G. HONOLD. I IGNITION FOR MULTIPLE CYLINDER COMBUSTION ENGINES HAVINGIRREGULAR ORDER OF IGNITION.

0N FILED lgg flgg Patented Jan. 5, 1915.

5 SHEETs-SHEBT 4.

. G. 1101mm IGNITION FOR MULTIPLE CYLINDER COMBUSTION ENGINES HAVINGIRREGULAR ORDER OF IGNITION.-

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 27. 1910.

Patented Jan. 5, 1915.

5 SHEETS SHEET 5.

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BOSCH, or s'ru'rreanr, GERMANY.

IGNITION FOR MULTIPLE-CYLINDER COMBUSTION-ENGINES HAVING IRREGULAR IORDER OF IGNITION.

Specification of-Lettersklatent.

Patented Jan. '5, 1915.

v Application filed September 27, 1910. Serial No. 584,004.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it .known that I, Gor'rnon Hononn, a

. subject off;the Emperorof Germany, residmake and use the same.

- pole machine.

. in employing a direct current dynamo, diiiirotates in sparking chineto each group;

ing at Stuttgart, Germany, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Ignition for Multi le-Cylinder Combustion- EnginesHaving rregular Order of Ignition; and I do hereby declare the followingto be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such aswillenable others skilled in the art to .which it appertains to Therehave been recently employed in areo-technics, multiple cylindercombustion engines whose cylinders'are arranged fanfashion in one ormore planes. The pitman rods of the individual pistons actuate either asingle crank or severalcranks having a definite angular arrangement.Such an arrangement of the cylinders establishes an irregular successionof individual ignitions. For this reason, the ignition for these enginesby: electric igniting machines is accompanied with great difliculties,because, as is well known, the sparking'voltage in these machines isalways developed at the same angular position ofthe .element that themagnetic field, so that the voltage is available only at uniformperiods, such as 90 or 180 in a two- Consequently, it has heretoforebeen advisable to divide the cylinders of such combustion engines intoseparate groups presenting a regular order of igni tion, and to assign aseparate ignition maor to employ for the ignition a source of directcurrent as a dynamo or a battery. An increase of the number of theignition machines for flying machine motors is inadvisable on account ofthe attendant increase of weight. With batteries the disadvantage ofunreliability of the ignition must be taken into account. Finally,

culties in starting are encountered.

The present invention is based upon the consideration that in theconstruction of al- .most all such engines the angular differencesbetween the crank positions corresponding to successive periods orinstants of ignition have acommon divisor. As soon asthis. condition 1isfulfilled, ignition can be produced with a: single magneto at allpoints irregular required by the irregular order of ignition, if weallow the-magneto to rotate uniformly at such a speed that itsshcceeding periods may be consumed in those engine cylinders whichcontain no combustible gasat the time. Or a special conductor can beprovided in combination with corresponding provisions .on thedistributor to allow the excess ignition currents to traverse theconductor. Or the interrupter can be arranged current is "availablebutis not required, the armature winding may be 'closed or not opened sothat no ignition current is pro-' duced. v 1

For multiple cylinder engines arranged in fan-forn1,-w1th an irregularorder of'ignition, the condition, thatthe angular differences betweensuccessive ignitions shall have a common divisor may be fulfilled bymaking the angles of divergence of neighboring cylinders equal to thecenter angles of aregular polygon. For instance, for the operation of afan-form three cylinder engine, whose cylinder axes form with each otherangles of 72 or 360/5, the engine requires an order of ignition, which,in relation to the crank stroke, is expressed by the angles 144, 288 and288, the" greatest common divisor of which is 144. Therefore, inaccoidance with the invention, instead of the order of ignition aregular order is providedin which the ignitions follow each other atperiods equal to 144 of the crank strokes or 7 2 of the cam shaftstroke. This is accomplished by interposing between the crank shaft andthe armature shaft of the assumed (as an example) two-pole shuttlearmature machine, gearing having [the ratio of 144 to 180 or 4 to 5; or,in other words, by treating the fan engine as if its cylinders weredistributed about the crank shaft at equal angles of the value of thecommon divisor and wherein someof the cylinders .are omitted. In theexample chosen we obtain in this way, for each two sothat,atfthe'timesatwhich the ignitiona of maximum voltage or sparkingpointsocmg dlstrlbuter.

revolutions of the crank shaft or one revolution of the cam shaft, fiveperiods of maximum voltage or ignition points of the magneto, whereasonly three are required for the operation of the engine. The two inexcess are suppressed in accordance with v the invention, in any of thewayshereinbefOlGyIQfGIlGCl to.

The drawings show several of a great number of possible exemplifications of the invention. All of the modifications shown relate to four-cycleengines.

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of a fan-form engine driving thecrank shaft with three cylinders arranged adjacent to each other atangular displacements of 72. Fig. 2 is the corresponding diagram of theorder-of-ignition, in its relation to the cam shaft. Fig. 3 is adiagrammatic illustration of a star shaped five cylinder engine withlike'divergence of the cylinders, and Fig. 4 is the correspondingdiagram of the order-of-ignition, in its relation to the cam shaft. Fig.5 is a diagrammatic illustration of an interrupter with fivecams, whichcan be employed for the engine of Fig. 3, in accordance with theinvention. Fig. 6 is a corresponding illustration of an interrupter withthree wipers for the engine of Fig. 1.

Fig. 7 is a representation of the correspond- Fig. 8 is'a diagrammaticillustration of a six cylinder engine wherein the fan-form cylindersarranged in pairs act upon three cranks arranged 120 apart.

Fig. 9 is an illustrative diagram of the relative piston positions ofthe engine-of Fig. 8. Fig. 10 is the corresponding order-of-ignitiondiagram, in its relation to the cam shaft. Fig. 11 is the diagram of astarforni nine cylinder engine, 'and Fig. 12 is the correspondingordereof-ignition diagram, in its relation to the cam shaft. Fig. 13 isan illustration of the interrupter correspending to the engine-of Fig.11; Fig. 14

is an illustration of the interrupter, and.

Fig. 15 an illustration of the distributer of the engine of Fig. 8. Fig.16 is an illustrative diagram of a six cylinder engine in which thereare three cylinders in one lane and three in another plane. Fig. 17 isthe corresponding order-of-ignition diagram, in its relation to the camshaft. Fig. 18 is the diagram of an eight cylinder engine wherein eachfour cylinders lie in a separate plane and actuate a common'crank. Thecranks of each group of four cylinders are'set at 180 to each other.Fig. 19 is the corresponding order-of-ignition digram, in its relationto the camshaft. Fig. 20 illustrates the interrupter' for the engine ofFig. 18, and Figs. 21 and 22 the interrupter and 'distributer forengineof Fig. 16. Figs.

23 to 25 show the construction of the distributer corresponding to thethree kinds of engines-illustrated with irregular engine cylinders inproper order by means of the distributor E and connections F and Gr. Theignition currents in excess of those required by the engine areconducted by the segments 8., and s," to the cylinders 2 and 3 near theends of the respective strokes when no explosive gas is present therein,as will be noted later.

The radii shown in Figs. 2, a, 10, 12, 17 and 19 indicate the angularposition of the cam shaft at the sparking periods for the cylinderscorresponding in numeration'.

Fig. 2 shows the order of ignition of the fan-engine of Fig. 1. Thecylinders follow each other in the series 1, 3, 2 in'angular positionsof the cam fshaft of 72, 144 and 144. Between radii, 3 and 2, and .2 and1, are indicated in dotted lines the dividing lines of the inclosedlangular positions, by which the irregular order-of-ig'nition diagram ofthe fan motor is'converted into one of regular order, identical withFig. 4: for the star-form five cylinder engine of Fig. 3. Thus, in orderto ignite the fan-engine in accordance with the invention, there isincluded between the cam shaft and the armature shaft of the ignitionmachine, gearing having a ratio of 2:5. i In accordance with Fig. 5there are provided for the interrupter, which iscon- 4 ceived asrotating at the same speed as the engaged by the contact arm rotatingwith the cam shaft. The points 4 and 5 are connected with the points 2and 3 respectively, by "the segments 8 and 8,, and the ignition currentsare conducted into the corresponding cylinders. Such occurs, however, attimes at which these cylinders are at the end of their working stroke,and hence, when they contain no ignitible gas mixture and cannottherefore affect the operation of the engine.

If itis desired to prevent; altogether the production of excess sparks,an interrupter cam-disk as shown in Fig. 6 may be arsed, wherein thecams corresponding to the missing cylinders 4: and 5 of the? engine ofFig.

1' are likewise missing, so that, in spite of There are emtheavailability of the ignition current between the ig'nitions 3 and '2 andbetween 2 and 1, no current flows in the ignition circuit at thesetimes. For this case adistributer disk in accordance with Fig. 7suflices. It is now apparent that this arrangement may be applied forall fan-form engines, whose cylinder spacings are equal to the centerangles for successlve ignitions.

The six cylinder engine illustrated in Figs. 8 and 9 requires theirregular order-ofignition diagram of Fig. 10, and this is converted, bythe insertion of the dotted dividin'g lines, in accordance with theinvention, into the regular order of ignition of Fig. 12, whichcorresponds to the star-form nine cylinder engine of Fig. 11. Thecylinder scheme of Fig. 11 is obtained from the cylinder scheme of Figs.8and 9 by rotating the pairs of cylinders 4, 5 and 7, 8, through theproper angles and imagining the cylinders 3, 6 and 9 as added. Inaccordance with my invention, the armature shaft of a two pole, shuttletype ignition machineis' connected with the cam shaft of the engine bygearing having a ratio of 2:9, and the periods of maximum voltagecorresponding to the missing cylinders 3, 6 and 9 are made inoperative.To do this, in accordance with the first example, I can make use of aninterrupter after the manner. of Fig. 13 and adistributer disk after themanner of Fig. 24, or of an interrupter-wiper-disk after the manner ofFig. 14, combined with a distributer-disk after the manner of Fig. 15.

. Fig. 16 is the scl .-me of a six-cylinder en-- gine, wherein thecylinders are arranged in two planes and displaced90 in each plane, thetwo series actuating two cranks arranged in 180 relation with eachother. The engine requires an irregular order of ignition in accordancewith Fig. 17. In accordance with the invention, the engine is to be im-'agined as completed, in the manner re ferred to, to make up the schemeof the eight cylinder engine of Fig. 18. There is obtained thereby theregular order of ignition of Fig. 19 with two excess ignitions, whichcorrespond to the missing cvlinders 3 and 7." For the suppression of theexcess ignitions, there may be used either an interrupter-cam-diskaccording to Fig. 20 in combination .with a distributer-eisk accordingto Fig. 25. or an interrupter-cam-di'sk according to Fig. 21 incombination with a distributer-disk according to Fig. 22.

' The invention is not necessarily confined to four-cycle engines, butcan by appropriate adaptation be employed with like eii'ect fortwo-cycleand six-cycle engines, and, in general for all engines operating withany desired cycle. It is likewise immaterial to the essence of theinvention whether a twopole or a multipole ignition machine is employed.

In the appended claims, regular inter-- vals is used in the sense ofintervals which recur periodically after equal lapses of time wheneverthe engine is rotating at constant speed, while irregular intervals isused in the sense of intervals which recur after unequal lapses of timewhenever the engine is rotating at constant speed.

lVhat I claim is 1. The combination with a multiple cylinder combustionengine requiring ignition at irregular intervals, of an ignition machineadapted to produce ignition voltages at regular intervals, means foroperating the i gnition machine at such speed relative to the speed ofthe engine that the regular interval between ignition periods of theignition machine is a common divisor of the irregular intervals ofignition of the en 'ne, and

engine, and means for selectingand distributing to the individualcylinders of the engine those generated voltages which coincide in timewith the irregular ignition periods of said cylinders.

3. In combination with a multiple cylin der combustion engine requiringignition at irregular intervals, of an ignition machine adapted toproduce ignition currents at regular intervals, means for operating theignition machine at such speed relatively to the speed of the enginethat the regular interv'al between ignition periods of the ignitionmachine is a common divisor of all the irregular intervals of ignitionof the en'- gine, and means for rendering inoperative the excessavailable ignition currents of the ignition machine.

4. The combination with a multiple cylinder combustion engine requiringignition at irregular intervals, of an ignition machine adapted toproduce ignition currents at regular intervals, means for operating theignition machine at such speed relative to the speed of the engine thatthe regular interval between ignition periods of the ignition machine isthe greatest common divisor of all the irregular intervals of i ition ofthe engine, and means for ren ermg tion The combination with a multiplecyl inder cumbustion engine requiring ignition at irregular intervals,of an ignition machine adapted to produce ignition currents at regularintervals, means for operating the ignition machine at such speedrelatively to the speed of the engine that the regular interval betweenignition periods of the ignition machine is a common divisor of all theirregular intervals of ignition of the engine, and a distributer withcontact pieces for conducting theexcess ignition currents to those cyliners of the engine which contain no explosive gas at the time.

inoperative the excess available igni-' current of the 1gn1t1on machine.

6. The combination with a multiple cylinder combustion engine requiringlgnition at irregular intervals, of an ignition machine adapted toproduce ignition currents at regular intervals, gearing operativelyconnecting the engine and ignition machine of/such ratio that theregular interval between ignition periods of the ignition machine is acommon divisor oli-all the irregular intervals of ignition of theengine, and a distributer and connections for conducting the excessignition currents to those cylinders which contain no explosive gas atthe time.

In testimony whereof I aiiix my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

eorrLoB HONOLD.

Witnesses Max Ansonn'rz, REIN HOLD ELWERT.

(levies c1! this patent may be obtained for five cents each, byaddressing? the "Gommissioner of .Eatemts,

' Washington, D. 83."

